The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

If you had to choose between a Model T and a new Ford Fusion, which would you buy? It’s a no brainer, isn’t it? You’d buy the Fusion, just as you’d choose a Blue Ray TV over a 1950s Black and White.

Most of us won’t put up with decades-old technology. Yet when it comes to our electricity, we’re stuck with last century’s dirty and inefficient power plants—even though cleaner and newer technologies are available.

It’s time for our electric power industry to embrace the 21st century with modern, cleaner power generation sources like wind and solar, natural gas and energy efficiency—and leave the 20th century’s increasingly uneconomic coal plants behind.

Rules to update the federal Clean Air Act this year are testing the power sector’s readiness to seize the future. After a long and heated debate, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally enacted the so-called “cross-state air pollution rule,” which limits sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, pollutants linked to asthma, bronchitis and heart attacks.

Now up for consideration is the “air toxics rule,” which limits mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from power plants.

Once again opponents are voicing the same tired argument that power companies need a lot more time to comply, even though they’ve known the rule was coming for more than a decade. Some—like American Electric Power—are pulling out all stops to delay the rule, which they say will destroy jobs, raise energy prices and slow economic growth.

That's nonsense. Studies show the EPA rule is technologically feasible, provides clear economic benefits and offers power companies an opportunity to modernize their aging fleets.

The power plants most endangered by these air pollution rules are the nation’s smallest, dirtiest, least-efficient plants. Most are more than 50 years old.